Tim Delaney photo
Pat and Charlie Sims stand in front of their 1946 CJ2A Willys Jeep. The Jeep sits on their property adjaent to Interstate-37 and is a landmark for motorists as well as a memorial to all veterans and law enforcement personnel.

Tim Delaney photo
A 1946 CJ2A Willys Jeep owned by Pat and Charlie Sims serves as a landmark for motorists traveling on Interstate-37 near U.S. Highway 59. The Jeep was placed on the Sims' property as a memorial to all veterans and law enforcement personnel.

GEORGE WEST – CJ was born in the summer of 1945, a year of victory, the advent of peace and a sense of jubilation in the United States.

World War II ended when the Japanese officially surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri.

CJ’s cousin MB had served the armed forces faithfully and beneficially.

But CJ was exempted from the armed forces and went to work across the United States, mainly in agriculture situations.

CJ-2A was a Willys Jeep that became the first civilian vehicle of its kind. Today’s modern descendant is the Jeep Wrangler.

Another example of a specially built military vehicle making the transition to civilian use was the Humvee. The civilian name as we know it is the Hummer.

The initial models of these vehicles were designed specifically for the military and were the first all-terrain vehicles that carried communications as well as weapons in battle. They have our admiration, but they also deserve credit for helping our armed forces through the years.

And Charlie and Pat Sims have taken their 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep and made a memorial of it.

Many motorists traveling on Interstate 37 just north of U.S. Highway 59 may have noticed the lone Jeep sitting in a pasture with the U.S. flag flying from a pole mounted on its rear bumper.

Once you notice the Jeep, you’ll always check to see it again on your way back or when you’re traveling I-37 again.

Charlie says it was Pat who wanted a flag pole out in the pasture.

“I put a pipe for a flag pole on the old Jeep and drove it out there,” Charlie says.

“It’s become a landmark: ‘The old Jeep with the flag on it,’ is what they say,” Charlie says.

Pat says she and her husband began taking the Jeep out to the pasture in 2000, but then they would bring it back to the garage.

So in 2002 they decided to leave the Jeep near their pasture’s fence line as a memorial.

“It’s a salute to the veterans and our law enforcement,” Charlie says.

He added that on occasion they use the windshield as a billboard, too.

One sign said “Give ‘em hell, George W.” And a more recent sign said, “God Bless you Clovis Ray,” a tribute to the fallen Three Rivers veteran, who died in Afghanistan earlier this year.

Pat says she remembers a couple who had to be in their 80s trying to get over the fence to take a photograph with the Jeep.